


Trick or Treat

by DoomedKelpie



Series: Trick or Treat (And What Follows) [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Deceit | Janus Sanders Angst, Drama, Halloween, Sympathetic Deceit | Janus Sanders, argument
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27291100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomedKelpie/pseuds/DoomedKelpie
Summary: It's almost Halloween, and when Janus shows up to join the discussion, it sparks an argument that dredges up old bitterness and hurt feelings.
Series: Trick or Treat (And What Follows) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002450
Kudos: 103





	Trick or Treat

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! :3  
> It seems I have ended up joining another fandom… and writing another fic instead of finishing my others ones… oh well.  
> Here’s a Halloween fic :3

XXX

It was nearing Halloween, and Thomas has been trying to come up with an idea for a holiday-themed video. Last year, they’d revisited some of Thomas’s most embarrassing phases, courtesy of Virgil. Needless to say, Thomas had no desire to repeat that experience, and even though that one had pretty much been Virgil’s ‘fault’, since he had been trying to scare everyone, he himself wasn’t keen on a repeat, either. Most days, he’d much rather keep Thomas from getting embarrassed as much as possible. 

Roman had been acting strange today. The other side had been stuck on the idea of pranking people and recording it, insisting on it even though the others were very much against the idea. Virgil himself was against it because he knew that pranking people was likely to get people mad, and when people got mad, Thomas could be in danger. What if someone they pranked got violent? What if they told people that Thomas was a bad person who did bad things? What if his friends thought he was immature for doing something like that and didn’t want to be friends with someone like that, so they didn’t want to be his friends anymore, and Thomas ended up all alone for the rest of his life all because of a stupid video and-

And Virgil was doing it again. He knew he was getting ahead of himself and coming up with future scenarios that weren’t very realistic, but it was hard not to. He was Anxiety, after all. 

Point was, everyone except Roman was against the idea of making a prank video. Logan agreed with Virgil that it was a bad idea, though his agreement was based upon more realistic consequences, and Patton believed that pranking people was wrong. But they couldn’t get Roman to agree with them. 

And why? Well, it turned out that it wasn’t Roman at all. Janus had decided to join their conversation again, replacing Roman this time. This came as a bit of a surprise, for Virgil at least. Janus didn’t usually take Roman’s place. He mostly stuck to either Logan or Patton, and if Roman was replaced by someone, it was usually Remus. Virgil, at least, hadn’t thought Janus  _ could  _ replace Roman. Apparently the deception of a trick was enough for the other side to appear, though. 

After he’d been found out, Roman, the  _ real _ Roman, had shown up and started an argument between everyone. Roman was furious about being replaced for a video, saying his input was essential for coming up with a video idea. And even though Logan and Patton had been against Janus’s idea, the two of them had become surprisingly sympathetic toward Deceit. As a result, they had been trying to get Roman to calm down and, as Logan put it, ‘try to keep the conversation civil.’

And so the argument began. 

“Why are you taking  _ his _ side?!” Roman shouted. “He’s  _ evil _ ! He’s trying to make Thomas do bad things, and you don’t even agree with his idea!”

“Now now, just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean we can’t respect each other-”

“ _ Respect _ each other??” Roman questioned incredulously. “He replaced me! He’s replaced  _ you! _ How can you be okay with that?!”

“Hey, guys…”

“There’s no need to yell, Roman. We can talk without raising our voices.”

“He’s  _ evil! _ ”

“You’ve agreed with him in the past, Roman,” Logan pointed out. 

“Well, I shouldn’t have!”

Virgil didn’t like this. He didn’t like any of it. He didn’t like having to deal with Janus, and he didn’t like all the shouting. But the yelling just kept going and going, and on the argument went until Virgil, who had remained quiet since it started, had finally had enough. 

“Can you all just  _ shut up _ ?” he requested. “No one except Janus wants to do the pranking video, so we have to figure out something else. That’s it. And if you all don’t cut it out, I’m going to leave.”

By now, Thomas had decided to let his sides deal with their argument themselves. They weren’t letting him get a word in, anyway, so for now, he would just watch. 

Janus rolled his eyes.

“Oh wow, such an  _ intimidating _ threat,” he drawled. “If they don’t do what you want, you’ll leave, and they can just continue what they were doing. Oh, I’m just  _ trembling _ with fear.”

Virgil couldn’t help himself and hissed back at him. Janus simply raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yes, how  _ very _ mature of you, Virgil,” he spoke. “You know, I may be the snake, but you seem to hiss like one.”

“I wasn’t talking to you!” Virgil shot back. “Why can’t you go away so we can just finish this discussion and move on?”

Janus glared slightly, his eyes narrowing, as he waved a hand through the air dramatically. 

“Oh, so  _ you _ can join the discussion, but  _ I  _ can’t?” he questioned. “Yes, that’s  _ completely _ fair. Why can you be here, but I have to leave?”

“Because Virgil isn’t  _ evil! _ ” Roman cut in.

Janus turned toward the prince.

“Really? Do you  _ really _ not see the hypocrisy here?” asked the man. “You all seem to have forgotten that Virgil used to be one of the dark sides, and you thought  _ he _ was evil, too. You hated him until relatively recently, after all. Especially you, Princey.”

Roman crossed his arms defensively, appearing flustered.

“Because I thought he was evil, but he wasn’t!” 

“Yes, yes… You  _ thought  _ he was evil, and you were wrong. But I guess it’s  _ impossible _ that you’re wrong about me being evil too?” Janus laughed dryly before shrugging. “Well, I suppose you do have a track record of being stubborn.”

At that, Roman opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Janus continued. 

“Ah, but what about you, Virgil?” Janus directed to the other side. “You and I  _ used _ to be on the same side, and you would think that, of all people,  _ you _ would understand what it’s like to be excluded. Well, what’s your reason, then? The others, I get. They’re the  _ good ones _ , but you and I, we’re the  _ bad guys _ .”

Virgil glared right back at the man.

“I’m here because I’m trying to help Thomas!” Virgil shot back. “If you had your way, Thomas would get in trouble, which is  _ exactly _ what I’m trying to prevent!”

Right then, Virgil didn’t care that he had ended up contributing to the argument he wanted to stop. He noticed that Patton looked like he wanted to say something, but since the other side remained quiet, he decided to ignore him.

Janus moved a hand to his hip.

“Yes, because I  _ never _ try to help Thomas.”

“You don’t!” Roman shouted.

With yet another eye roll, Janus ignored Roman. 

“We used to get along rather well Virgil, if you remember,” Janus kept speaking. “You represent Thomas’s sense of self-preservation, and  _ I _ represent his self-interest. We really have the same goals.”

Virgil gritted his teeth a bit.

“Except we  _ don’t! _ ” Virgil told him, his voice harsh. “I used to think we did, but we  _ don’t _ !”

“I seem to remember things differently, so would you care to elaborate?”

“You always  _ say _ you have Thomas’s best interests in mind, but that’s a lie!” Virgil explained. “Half the stuff you suggest could get him arrested! And most of the rest will make people hate him! How does that serve his best interests?! You’re just a lying snake, and I shouldn’t have trusted you!”

Janus shifted his hands into another pose.

“I admit that I don’t  _ always _ have the most… friendly of ideas, but I  _ always _ have Thomas’s best interests in mind,” Janus denied. “The fact is that Thomas has to be selfish sometimes. There are times when he’s going to  _ have _ to do things that hurt others or make other people dislike him. Hell, people might dislike him even if he was a saint… Point is, I’m just another part of Thomas that he needs to listen to sometimes…”

His hand moved toward his face.

“Much like you, in fact,” he continued. “You’ve gotten better about it, but in case you’ve forgotten, you used to be quite the problem yourself. You would  _ claim _ that you’re trying to help Thomas, but you would end up holding him back from doing things he  _ really _ wanted to do, simply because you believed in ridiculous scenarios and imagined dangers that were  _ never _ going to harm him.”

That stung. Of course, Virgil knew he wasn’t always very helpful. He tried, but he had a hard time discerning between legitimate concerns and exaggerated worries sometimes.

“... I don’t  _ mean _ to hold him back…,” Virgil replied defensively, hunching over a bit in his spot on the stairs. “I’m just trying to keep Thomas  _ safe _ .”

“And  _ I’m _ just trying to help Thomas get what he wants. Even if he’s safe, he won’t be  _ happy _ if he never serves his own interests,” Janus pointed out.

Deep down, Virgil knew that Janus was right, but he didn’t  _ want _ to admit it. He hated talking to Janus. They used to be pretty close, before. But when Virgil realized that Janus’s ideas often led to bad consequences for Thomas, he’d felt betrayed. Still… Virgil hated admitting that he hurt Thomas sometimes too. They all did. 

“Hanging out with the ‘good sides’ doesn’t make you any better than us, Virgil. You should stop pretending it does, because we’re  _ all _ aspects of Thomas’s personality. If I’m here, that means that I’m part of Thomas,” Janus sighed. “ _ Anyway _ , I’ve had enough of this drama for one day.”

With a dramatic wave, Janus sank down into the floor and disappeared. This left the others to stand there in awkward silence for a moment as the conversation hung over them. 

“... I… think Janus is right, guys. At least on some things…,” Patton said finally. “He  _ is  _ trying to help Thomas, and he  _ is _ an aspect of Thomas’s personality… I was going to say that I think we should at least  _ try _ to understand him, you know…?”

Patton sighed. 

“I don’t want to make the same mistake we made with  _ you _ , Virgil…”

“I think Patton’s right, guys,” Thomas chimed in, finally getting a chance to voice his opinion. “I don’t think Janus is completely bad. You all have your good sides and your bad sides, you know?”

Virgil’s chest felt tight with a confusing mixture of guilt, anger, and of course, anxiety. He let out a deep, frustrated sigh, running a hand through his already-messy hair. 

“I can’t deal with any more of this right now,” he told them. “I’ll see you guys later.”

And before anyone could try to stop him, he, too, disappeared.

XXX

**Author's Note:**

> And there’s the story! The Halloween part ended up being pushed off to the side… whoops…  
> Anyway, I wrote this because I think that Janus is obviously not all bad, based on what happens in the videos. And I was thinking about his parallels with Virgil, and came up with this conversation. I actually wrote this all in like 2 hours because I had to get it written out before I forgot it, ha…
> 
> Thanks for reading! :3


End file.
